February update

February 18, 2009

Praying for a breakthrough

Last month Sue and I celebrated the 17th anniversary of our arrival in Germany. We are grateful for all that the Lord has done; for the people who have come to faith and the churches that have been planted. We are thankful but not satisfied. Germany remains a very needy mission field.

Recently our mission leadership approached us with an idea that we immediately embraced. Cologne has been named a "breakthrough" city by our mission, along with Sophia, Bulgaria. The 9 GEMers who live here have been praying intensely about what a breakthrough in Cologne might look like. The vision God has begun to reveal to us is to see His Kingdom breaking through the spiritual darkness in Cologne through a movement of rapidly reproducing churches. We are urgently asking God for thousands of new and growing Jesus followers across Cologne. To start with, we are on a manhunt for at least 100 Persons of Peace (Luke 10) who would then be a part of the planting of scores of new churches.

Prayer is not just the basis of breakthrough but our primary strategy. In order to see breakthrough, we ask you to join us and pray persistently and unashamedly until God acts. To that end, we have begun a new wave of prayer walking in Cologne. Going out two by two, at least twice a week and simply praying; praying for the people we see, for the schools, hospitals and businesses we pass. And as God leads us, we are engaging with people along the way, offering to pray for them and trying to discover if they are open to spiritual things and hoping to ascertain whether they are a person of peace or not.

Breakthrough cannot be achieved on our own. We desperately need to mobilize and partner with existing churches, local believers, and students passionate about church planting, and other Mission focused groups - both European and North American.

Our aim is to recruit and train national as well as international young people to plant churches, offering them a 1-2 year internship. The initial focus will be prayer walking, and connecting with people of peace - with expansion to disciple making and church planting.

Recruiting multiple short-term teams from North American churches that will come for 1-2 weeks and join with us in prayer walking and finding persons of peace is also a part of the strategy. We also hope to recruit many more long-term church planters to move to Cologne.

Please pray with us as we enter this new and exciting phase of ministry. We expect great things from God.

Also, please continue to pray for our other church planting efforts:

The liturgical church plant in Cologne: We had hoped to hold our first service on March 1 but have decided to postpone. We just need more time to formulate our shared values and to determine what our liturgy will look like.

City Mentoring Program: There are 11 people participating in our present phase 1 group. We meet every 3 weeks for a 3-hour session to discuss the various aspects of church planting. Our most recent session on Monday was all about developing a philosophy of ministry. It is energizing to be speaking into these people's lives. One couple drives 3 hours from northern Germany to participate.

New Missionaries! We have had three new missionaries arrive on the field and another 3 expected still this year. God is answering our prayers for more workers to join in the harvest! Please pray for these people as they go through huge adjustments living in a different culture and learning the language.

The next consultation for church planting is scheduled for March 23-24, our first 2-day meeting. We have the privilege of having Michael Frost speak to us. He is the co-author of a fascinating book on post-modern missions: "The shaping of things to come." This book is really challenging my thinking and I highly recommend it.

Thank you for standing with us.

Your missionaries to Germany,
Jason and Sue